title: Toward single-molecule microscopy on a smart phone.
abstract: Thanks to fluorescence, single nano-objects down to individual fluorophores can now be imaged in optical microscopes. Fluorescence imaging is still restricted to laboratory facilities as it usually involves expensive and bulky instrumentation. A report by Wei et al. in this issue of ACS Nano, however, shows that a sensitive, cost-effective, and portable device can be developed to image individual nano-objects as small as large viruses. This work opens the fascinating prospects of single-molecule microscopy and spectroscopy on a smart phone. We speculate on the possible applications of such a portable imaging device and on the perspectives it may open in different fields of science and technology.
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institute of Physics, Universiteit Leiden , 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Saumyakanti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khatua
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orrit
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles